By Tom Kando
Fresh back from vacation, I can’t resist weighing in on the fascinating debate triggered by Madeleine’s post “The DSK Affair.” Many good things were written on all sides. I am like Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,”- “You are Right, and you are also Right.”
Synopsis: Madeleine’s starting salvo is eloquent and correct. No need for me to re-iterate that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is a pig if he is guilty.
But Csaba is also right - everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Steve is also right: this incident is another opportunity for the never-ending Anglo-Saxon - Gallic culture war to flare up again. Marc, too is right: there is too much trial by the press going on, and the legal lines (consensuality and statutory age distinctions are problematic).
Then, Madeleine and Marc begin an exchange about cultural relativity and sexual mores.
I am proud of the high quality of exchange found on our blog.
Let me add my two bits worth: First of all, it is important to remember that this is (also) a feminist issue. It is logical that Madeleine empathizes with the pain of Strauss-Kahn’s alleged victim more than we men do.
And there is a second way in which Strauss-Kahn’s (largely French) apologists are being assholes: their claim that the French (journalists, etc.) are superior to Americans because they keep politics out of the bedroom, etc.
But then, just like Tevye, I also find myself in agreement with former Culture Minister Jack Lang, when he indicts the American Criminal Justice System for its cruelty. Here, I speak as an expert, having taught criminology for decades.
By some measures, the American Criminal Justice System is the most punitive on the planet. For example, we lock up nearly 800 people per 100,000 population. No other country comes even close to this, not China, not Iran, nobody. In Europe, they lock up between 50 (Denmark) and 80 (the UK) people per 100,000.
California today has 10 times more prisoners than when I moved here. The likelihood of a black male doing prison time during his life is over 50%. And a majority of prisoners are there for non-violent offenses such as drug possession and parole violation.
The obscenity is that this is driven by economics. It’s the Criminal Justice-Industrial Complex. It’s a job-creation program. The system must be fed. When I started teaching at Cal State, the budget for Higher Education was three times that of the Department of Corrections. Now it’s almost the other way around.
Increasingly, Republican state governments have succeeded in privatizing prisons and juvenile detention facilities. Prisons become for-profit businesses! But all of this is well known.
So part of the problem, basically, is that there is more panic about crime in America than elsewhere. And this at a time when crime has been in decline for many years!
Also, as some of you imply, there is more panic about sex in America than in France and elsewhere in Europe.
My advice to everybody: If you are going to f...up, better not do it in this country. We have the most unforgiving C.J. System. Remember Roman Polanski? He committed statutory rape 35 years ago, but there is no statute of limitation on such crimes, so the US authorities are still after him.
I have no problem when the high and the mighty fall. Billionaire white collar criminals, throw the book at them. Strauss-Kahn, if found guilty, throw the book at him.
At the same time, if I were a foreigner, I would be pretty afraid coming to America. You never know what sort of piling on and magnification could take place, even if you only mess up a tiny bit, say you have consenting sex with a 17.5 year old, or you are caught with a .9 blood alcohol content while moving your car in a parking lot, or you are caught with a joint in your pocket.
My advice to foreign visitors to our shores: be very prudent. Here, law enforcement and the judicial system are a crap shoot. leave comment here
5 comments:
Tom, I am very glad that you took the time to weigh in! We share a way of looking at the world that is uncommon. It is often seen as an affront to the common-sensical wisdom.
As you note, America is the king of the imprisonment mountain by orders of magnitude. Many, if not most people ask, why are there so many criminal evil-doers in America? Whereas you and I tend to ask, what is it about America that makes it imprison so many of its citizens?
There's two ways of looking at it. Either America is the most efficient nation on Earth when it comes to breeding evil doers OR for social, economic, and political reasons, America is the nation least able or least willing to integrate its citizens into a coherent system of shared values, aims and methods. The land of the free?
Statistically speaking, most crimes in America are against property, personal injury being largely incidental to the purpose of theft. Petty theft/shoplifting is right up at the top. Of course the statistics for theft are problematic because you only get counted if you get caught. Those caught are the tip of the iceberg, with so-called white collar thievery constituting the deep blue sea of America's larcenous culture.
This makes perfect sense when we recognize that the distribution of wealth in America is the most uneven of all developed nations. Add to this the fact that we idolize the wealthy, denigrate the poor and cleave to the belief that it's every man for himself---a perfect storm.
Drug crimes are up there with theft, but they are a mixed Bag. The selling of drugs is a nifty way to avoid having to steal--a profitable business venture requiring no college degree or connections in high places. Prostitution, a crime, is also a way to get ahead, economically--the entrepreneurial spirit at work.
Crimes against persons--assault and battery, maiming and murder, are way down the list in the tails of the criminal distribution. You wouldn't know it by watching the telly, but people don't have much interest in hurting each other unless there's a profit to be made, inner-city gang vendettas and jilted lovers being notable exceptions.
Both sex and sex crimes get a lot of attention on the telly, which is no surprise. Sex is...well...sexy. Now rape as a perverse and forcible act, could be shoved up into the crimes against persons---still out in the tails of the distribution. You can probably put pedophilia out in the tails too, if you could come up with a workable definition.
It's the sex crimes we are left with that get fuzzy--adultery, pornography, sodomy, homosexuality, bestiality, fetishism, date rape, sexual harassment and seduction. Social norms regarding these acts vary widely, even in America--Utah, Appalachia, San Francisco. I used to take my sociology students to visit Camarillo State Hospital to see the "sex offenders". Queer Tab Hunter spent a good deal of time there.
It seems that evil, socio and psycho pathology--malformations like two-headed snakes, live out in the tails of the statistical distribution, probably planet-wide. Most folks are just doing their best to get along. They just want to be okay. When being okay is a matter of money, people steal. Want to reduce most crime? Reduce the importance of wealth. That's the way it works in Western Somoa. Nobody steals. Everybody just borrows.
Tom, you wrote: "It is logical that Madeleine empathizes with the pain of Strauss-Kahn’s alleged victim more than we men do."
What kind of 'logic' is this?
In my mind, the basic issue is that in many discussions about the French/American contrast so far too many people treat it as having to do with sex and/or privacy, while it should be about prerogatives and (sexual) violence.
Again, 'logic'?
I am thankful for these comments. Marc obviously knows his facts, and he feasts us to an excellent lecture in criminology. Learn from him, readers.
Paul: nothing profound meant by my "empathy" remark, just a truism: people tend to empathize more with those who are in the same category, than with those who are in another category. If you are black, you are more likely to emphathize with other blacks than if you are white, etc.
They are after Roman Polanski for fleeing after he had been found guilty, if I understand correctly. He could have served a short (probably suspended) sentence, maybe paid a fine, and been done with it all those years ago. His crime (and was it only the technciality of statutory rape, and not forcible?) was considered small potatoes at the time (even if sensational in the tabloid press), but skipping out on the courts, not so much so.
That aside, I'd not dispute most of what you say. As for Strauss-Kahn . . . well, I'd be stunned if he is not guilty as charged. He's ruined that hotel housekeeper's life, and for that he cannot be charged (but maybe sued). He'll probably find vicious lawyers who can further ruin her life and get him off the hook.
Regards,
Ken makes several good points.
I hesitated to use the Polanski example in the first place, as I am aware of the aspects Ken mentions. Still, even Polanski's victim has urged the authorities to drop the case, which should count for something...
My general point has been to emphasize the very punitive nature of our justice system.
regarding Strauss-Kahn, I also suspect his guilt, but I am not as sure as you that he'll beat the rap (and I sure as heck hope he doesn't).
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